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An entirely different kind of flying all together

Been brewing a beer in honor of the new AC-130J Ghostrider, an imperial American Black Ale, employing as many meaningful terms as I can fit in a bottle:
105 IBU for the 105mm howitzer.
30% smoked malt for the 30mm gun that currently fills the plane with gunsmoke.
130L CaraAroma for the malt backbone at 12% of the bill for the 12 AC-130W AFSOC originally planned to develop.
Aged on whiskey-soaked oak chips for that same “whiskey model” AC-130W heritage.
Hops largely for jingoistic names: Magnum, Warrior, Liberty, and dry hopped with Falconer’s Flight.
All coming in around 9.2% ABV because you have to be drunk to understand this program or get on this plane.

Just tasted them today (there are two versions with different mixes of smoked malts and rye) as they were bottled. SUPER excited. Holy shit. Deliciously rich, layered, intense. I might even crank up the smoke and oak a bit, but this is a great start.

Date nights are a critical yet often overlooked element to surviving parenthood. Thank God for having a nice place like Osteria Marzano hiding in a suburban office park that feels more park than office on a nice night.